Timing of getting the weather paradigm

[Mongoose]

Ogie - Yes, I am sure. PM is combat bonus for fungus.

Jac - All units.(not choppers, though!) Native units heal in fungus normally.

[Rubin]

See! One thing I surely haven't noticed: the Xenoempathy Dome makes normal units heal completely in fungus. Thanks a lot, Mongoose!

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Mong,

Thanks as well. Just goes to show you can still learn even if you've been playing the game since it first came out.

You the man Mong.

Now go thrash some orange believing butt wouldcha.

[UnityScoutChopper]

Do y'all skip the HGP for the WP? I play Transcend/Huge, and thin-expand, making the HGP a necessity, and (at least if Deirdre or Cha Dawn is in the game) the WP a luxury.

For me, there are two kinds of games: those where I have the HGP, and those where I don't. The second kind is pretty painful!!! It is NOT nice to have to use a doctor, police unit (requiring an otherwise-not-very-useful tech beeline), or a Rec Commons (overkill...) just to avoid drone riots at size 2!!

Do all you WP-lovers somehow leverage to WP to also get the HGP, or just expand less, play at a lower level, play exclusively Drones and Lal... or what?

[Lazerus]

Playing as Yang i normally have that many bases that for some reason even size 1 bases riot, this even occurs if i get the HGP which has always puzzled me since i'd have thought the first citizen would be a talent thus ensuring i only need to send in the police at size 3
So for me the HGP is just a luxury and i only aim for it to purely spite others.

[UnityScoutChopper]

Lazarus,

I eventually reach that stage with any faction, not just Yang. However, that does NOT mean that the HGP is useless for me, because long before I reach that stage, I reach a stage where the HGP makes the difference between size-one-autoriots and size-two- (or even size-three-) autoriots. I think what's happening in our situation is that the first citizen is an ueber-drone, a double-drone. Thus the HGP pulls it up to a "mere" ordinary drone, and one more point of drone-quenching eliminates it.

Anyway, for me, the earlier the effect is the more important, as by the time my first citizens are double-drones, I usually have other tools (cops and sufficient cash for RC's and maybe even psych) alongside the HGP, but this is much less true in the period when my first citizens are single-drones.

USC

[Jamski]

I never bother with the HGP. The other early SPs seem much more useful. An extra talent in each base, which only applies if you have lest than the "drone limit" number of bases, is not so useful for me. The drones are better controlled with Police, or psych, depending on my SE settings. Sure, if I can get the HGE project without sacrifcing the WP or the ME or the Empath Guild or the Virtual World, then I'll take it, but it ain't a priority. I generally run 20% psych the whole game anyway.

-Jam

[Adalbertus]

Usually I don't mind to miss the HGP if I can get VW which is way more important IMO, just for the one more drone appeased. Building Hologram Theatres early on costs too much support.

[Mongoose]

HGP has the advantage of making GA driven pop-booms (SMAX) much easier to accomplish. If you keep your number of bases below the second Bureacracy threshold, the odd-numbered pop problem can be more easily circumvented. I think this is the most important of the early SPs for Sven, Aki and Morgan.

[UnityScoutChopper]

Jamski - the HGP doesn't have to create talents to be useful. Once you exceed the drone limit, it still makes the first citizen a non-drone, rather than a drone. Once you get double-drones, it converts them to ordinary drones. All of this is EXTREMELY useful, and it comes a lot earlier than the VW. Turn advantage...

In my latest game as the pirates I built the HGP and was able, from the very next turn, to convert somewhere between 7 and 9 doctors to workers. If we assume for simplicity's sake that
1. Each worker was producing 3 FOP's on average
2. Each FOP can be assigned the same value, "1", and
3. The effect in the turns afterwards was roughly the same, then

3x8=24x9 = 216 - the HGP achieved ROI in 9 turns (I unfortunately got Planned the turn after completing the HGP). Not bad!

I agree that the WP is wonderful. I mean, I love it too! But for me, if it means skipping the HGP, then I'll take the 50% extra workers, please.

USC

[Sikander]

I raise the HGP to #1 when playing the pirates, otherwise it is very difficult to get them to GA pop boom. With most other factions I still go for the WP first, though most of the time with a strong faction I'll get them both.

[CEO Aaron]

The Peacekeepers are another faction that can make great use of HGP. Build along with the Planetary Transit System, each and every starting base is instantly in a Golden Age. With even a moderate psych allocation, you can keep every base in Golden Age indefinitely.

Even so, I consider the WP more imporant, if only for this reason: For a significant portion of my games, the extra talent in most of my bases isn't doing anything other than sitting there looking good. Psych is allocated for your entire faction, so many of those talents will be far in excess of your needs, just to keep your worst bases in line. Whereas with WP, every single former you build is 33% faster all the time. I would consider WP worth it for this feature alone, the lifting of certain terraforming restrictions is pure gravy.